Video trailer for the text 'Water' from 'Scorch Atlas,' a novel by Blake Butler published by Featherproof Books | featherproof.com

'Water' is the first of a series of 14 rains that fall in Scorch Atlas, including gravel, blood, manure, and light.

On Pre-Sale Now! A novel of 14 interlocking stories set in ruined American locales where birds speak gibberish, the sky rains gravel, and millions starve, disappear or grow coats of mold. In 'The Disappeared,' a father is arrested for missing free throws, leaving his son to search alone for his lost mother. In 'The Ruined Child,' a boy swells to fill his parents' ransacked attic. Rendered in a variety of narrative forms, from a psychedelic fable to a skewed insurance claim questionnaire, Blake Butler's full-length fiction debut paints a gorgeously grotesque version of America, bringing to mind both Kelly Link and William Gass, yet turned with Butler's own eye for the apocalyptic and bizarre.

Blake blogs at gillesdeleuzecommittedsuicideandsowilldrphil.com